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  Maintenance system for an equipment setUSPTO Application #: 20060155425Title: Maintenance system for an equipment set Abstract: The invention relates to the maintenance of a rapidly installable and rapidly removable set of equipment (1-6, 11) which can be replaced by standard exchanges, furnished with individual electronic circuits for monitoring proper operation (1a-6a, 20a-23a, 30a-32a, 11a) assuming, at their level, a BITE function (Build [sic] In Test Equipment) for testing, for fault diagnosis and for issuing fault messages sent by data transmission to a central maintenance computer (7) itself formulating a report regarding the overall state of operation of the set of equipment. It relates more especially to the hardware parts of the electronic circuits for monitoring proper operation which are integral with the equipment (1-6) or with equipment parts (20-23, 30-32) and which are furnished with a nonvolatile memory (405) and with means of detection, selection and capture (403, 413, 423) into their nonvolatile memories (405), of the report formulated by the central maintenance computer (7). Since these hardware parts of circuits for monitoring proper operation track the tribulations of the equipment parts or pieces of equipment with which they are integral, they make it possible for the latest report regarding the overall state of operation of the set of equipment often causing the removal, to be always available, in a repair center, with an item removed for repair, thereby facilitating the drawing up of a repair diagnosis. (end of abstract) Agent: Oblon, Spivak, Mcclelland, Maier & Neustadt, P.C. - Alexandria, VA, US Inventors: Peter Howlett, Francois Fournier USPTO Applicaton #: 20060155425 - Class: 701001000 (USPTO) Related Patent Categories: Data Processing: Vehicles, Navigation, And Relative Location, Vehicle Control, Guidance, Operation, Or Indication The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060155425. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
[0001] The present invention relates to the maintenance of a set of equipment, such as the set of avionic equipment of an aircraft which fulfill the various functions required for accomplishing a flight. [0002] An aircraft comprises a large number of pieces of equipment, of diverse kinds, mechanical, hydraulic, electrical or electronic, whose proper operation is essential during a flight. [0003] To improve the degree of confidence accorded to these pieces of equipment, a monitoring of their proper operation is carried out for each of them as often as possible, consisting of a monitoring of the fundamental parameters and within automatic or semiautomatic tests of proper operation, followed by a fault diagnosis which may lead to the issuing of fault messages. This monitoring of proper operation, associated with a piece of equipment, is known as the BITE function, stemming from the abbreviation for the expression "Built In Test Equipment". [0004] The BITE function of a piece of equipment is assumed by a piece of electronics which may be specific or shared with other functions of the relevant piece of equipment. This piece of electronics performs the software processing required by the BITE function. It comprises a greater or lesser hardware part integral with the piece of equipment, with, as a minimum, in this hardware part, a nonvolatile memory in which are stored the violations of specification by the monitored parameters, the results of the tests, the fault diagnosis when it exists as well as the fault messages issued. The fault messages of the BITE functions of the monitored pieces of equipment of an aircraft are addressed, via an airplane data transmission link, to a centralizing piece of equipment placed on board the aircraft so as to gather the various fault messages issued. [0005] On board recent aircraft, the fault messages originating from the BITE functions of the various pieces of equipment are consultable from the flight deck. They are furthermore preprocessed, with a view to easing the task of the crews and of the maintenance personnel, by a special-purpose central computer known by various titles such as CMC standing for the expression "Central Maintenance Computer" or else CFDIU standing for "Centralized Fault Display Interface Unit". This central maintenance computer is accessible to the crew via an interface with keyboard and screen which may be that known by the abbreviation MCDU stemming from the expression "Multipurpose Control Display Unit" but which may also be a portable computer of the PC type attached via a disconnectable data link which may or may not utilize the airplane bus. Its main function is to make, in real time or at the end of the flight, a diagnosis of the general situation of the aircraft on the basis of a summary of the fault messages received from the various pieces of equipment of the aircraft. It also fulfills other functions such as the correlating of the fault messages received with the alarms received at the flight deck level, the conducting of particular tests on the equipment, undertaken on request, by an operator intervening from the keyboard/screen interface affording access to the central maintenance computer or the compiling of a "post-flight" report, known by various titles such as PFR or LLR standing for "Post Flight Report" or "Last Leg Report", destined for the ground maintenance teams, encompassing a log of the fault messages issued by the various pieces of equipment of the aircraft and of the alarms presented to the crew as well as the summary of the fault messages made in the last resort and more generally, all the information about the states of operation of the equipment, capable of easing the work of the ground maintenance team, whether this information results from automatic exploitation of the equipment fault messages or from remarks by the crew. [0006] To reduce the time for which an aircraft is grounded, its equipment, be it mechanical such as valves, pumps etc., electrical such as switches, relays, batteries etc., or electronic such as automatic pilot computers, navigation computers etc., is, as often as possible, designed in such a way as to be able to be easily dismantled and replaced rapidly by standard exchange. One then speaks of LRU equipment standing for the expression "Line Replaceable Unit". [0007] The concept of items which can easily be dismantled and replaced by standard exchange is even extended to a lower tier of assemblage, within the pieces of equipment themselves, by use of modular architectures with modules which can easily be dismantled and replaced by standard exchange, some of them possibly being multifunction, that is to say usable in several different pieces of equipment. One then speaks of LRM modules standing for "Line Replaceable Module". [0008] The BITE function for testing for proper operation exists at each of the two possible levels of standard exchange of items within an aircraft: LRU equipment level and LRM equipment module level. It is referred to as the resource BITE function when it is concerned with a hardware setup or with the first-level software used (such as the operating system) and as the application BITE function when it is concerned with higher-level software. It is ensured by a piece of electronics, of which a greater or lesser hardware part tracks the fate of the item capable of a standard exchange. [0009] The BITE function can also exist at a third level of assemblage grouping together several LRM modules placed in one and the same cabinet or rack. It is then referred to as the overall BITE function and consists of a prediagnosis easing that of the central maintenance computer. [0010] An exemplary system for maintenance of the equipment of an aircraft by means of BITE functions integrated into the equipment and of a central maintenance computer of the aforesaid kind is described in American patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,919. [0011] Once an equipment part or a piece of equipment has been tagged as defective and removed from an aircraft, it has to be overhauled in a repair station. To ease this overhauling, it is known practice for the nonvolatile memory of the hardware part of the electronics ensuring the BITE function of the removed item, which remains integral with the item even after its removal, to be made to play an overhaul help function. Specifically, this memory which can be consulted while the item is still installed on board the aircraft, by way of the MCDU screen/keyboard interface ensuring the interface with the central maintenance computer, is also consultable in the repair station by way of a test rig specially suited to this consultation function and used to diagnose the fault. [0012] This overhaul help resulting from the storing in memory of the diagnosis of the BITE function of the item examined is sometimes insufficient, in particular in the case of faults occurring only in a particular context. The repair technician is then required to take account of the reasons for and conditions of removal. Hitherto, these reasons for and conditions of removal have appeared in a written note drafted by the operator managing the aircraft, usually an airline company, on the basis of the notes made by the ground maintenance personnel in the aircraft's maintenance logbook (Technical/Maintenance Logbook), from indications provided by the central maintenance computer, including the "post-flight" PFR/LLR report. [0013] This entirely manual process for advising as to the reasons for and conditions of removal of an equipment part or of a piece of equipment involving several successive intervening parties often produces retranscription errors and exaggerated simplifications in the information transmitted to the repair station, or even a complete absence of information so that the help afforded to the fault diagnosis by the note accompanying the removed item and explaining the reasons for and conditions of removal is often less than that which one would be entitled to expect. [0014] The aim of the present invention is to reduce the manual interventions in the process for advising a repair station as to the reasons for and conditions of removal of an equipment part or of a piece of equipment to be repaired by profiting from the presence, within the removed item, of a nonvolatile memory dedicated to the BITE function of this item, so as to make this nonvolatile memory play a role of storage, not only of the diagnosis of the BITE function of the removed item, but also of the "post-flight" PFR/LLR report drawn up by the central maintenance computer and, possibly, of the diagnoses of the BITE functions of other levels of assemblage encompassing that of the removed item: BITE function of the piece of equipment encompassing the removed item when the latter is an LRM module and when this piece of equipment is also furnished at its level with a BITE function, and/or an overall BITE function when the piece of equipment to which the removed item belongs is grouped together with other pieces of equipment in a cabinet or rack furnished at its level with an overall BITE function. [0015] By virtue of this reducing of the manual interventions in the process for advising a repair station as to the reasons for and conditions of removal of an item to be repaired, the accuracy and the reliability of the information reaching the repair station, with the item removed, regarding the anomalies noted while operational and regarding the circumstances of the fault are improved. Numerous benefits may be expected from an improvement in the reliability and in the accuracy of the information given to the repair station, including: [0016] better quality of repair related to better knowledge of the circumstances of the fault, [0017] reduction in the repair time, likewise related to better knowledge of the circumstances of the fault, [0018] possibility of continuous improvement of items and equipment stemming from better knowledge of their anomalies noted while operational, [0019] possibility of prompting and training actions on the part of the maintenance personnel with regard to the operators managing the aircraft with a view to reducing the incorrect removals of items or of pieces of equipment following poor interpretation of the fault messages, [0020] better traceability of incorrect removals, referred to as NFF (the abbreviation standing for "No Fault Found"). [0021] The subject of the invention is a maintenance system for a set of equipment comprising: [0022] electronic circuits for monitoring proper operation of each piece of equipment, each furnished with means for formulating tests of proper operation and for issuing fault messages should the tests fail, as well as a nonvolatile memory integral with the monitored piece of equipment, [0023] a central maintenance computer allied with said electronic circuits for monitoring proper operation, provided with means of diagnosis of the state of operation of the set of equipment, functioning on the basis of the fault messages of said electronic circuits for monitoring proper operation and formulating a report regarding the overall state of operation of the set of equipment, [0024] one or more data transmission links linking said electronic circuits for monitoring proper operation to the central maintenance computer, said maintenance system for a set of equipment being characterized in that the central computer comprises means for making its report regarding the overall state of operation of the set of equipment available on the data transmission link or links linking it to the electronic circuits for monitoring proper operation and in that the electronic circuits for monitoring proper operation comprise means of detection, capture and transfer into their nonvolatile memories integral with the equipment, of the report regarding the overall state of operation of the set of equipment formulated by the central maintenance computer when this report travels over the transmission link or links linking the electronic circuits for monitoring proper operation to the central maintenance computer. [0025] Advantageously, when pieces of equipment are grouped together in subsets themselves furnished, at their upper level of assemblage, with electronic circuits for monitoring proper operation generating fault messages relating to said subsets destined for the central maintenance computer, the electronic circuits for monitoring proper operation of these pieces of equipment are also furnished with means of detection, capture and transfer into their nonvolatile memories integral with the equipment, of fault messages issued by the electronic circuit or circuits for monitoring proper operation of the subset(s) to which the monitored pieces of equipment belong, when these messages travel over said data transmission link or links linking the circuits for monitoring proper operation to the central maintenance computer. [0026] Advantageously, when, pieces of equipment comprise parts themselves furnished, at their lower level of assemblage, with electronic circuits for monitoring proper operation generating fault messages relating to said equipment parts destined for the central maintenance computer, characterized in that the electronic circuits for monitoring proper operation of these equipment parts are also furnished with means of detection, capture and transfer into their nonvolatile memories integral with the equipment parts, of fault messages issued by the circuit or circuits for monitoring proper operation of the piece or pieces of equipment to which the monitored equipment parts belong when these messages travel over the data transmission link or links linking the circuits for monitoring proper operation to the central maintenance computer. [0027] Advantageously, when pieces of equipment comprise parts themselves furnished, at their lower level of assemblage, with electronic circuits for monitoring proper operation generating fault messages relating to said equipment parts destined for the central maintenance computer, and when the pieces of equipment which comprise these equipment parts are grouped together in subsets themselves furnished, at their upper level of assemblage, with electronic circuits for monitoring proper operation generating fault messages relating to said subsets destined for the central maintenance computer, the electronic circuits for monitoring proper operation of the parts of these pieces of equipment are also furnished with means of detection, capture and transfer into their nonvolatile memories integral with the equipment parts, of fault messages issued by the circuit or circuits for monitoring proper operation of the piece or pieces of equipment and of the subgroup(s) of equipment to which the equipment parts which they are monitoring belong, when these messages travel over the data transmission link or links linking the circuits for monitoring proper operation to the central maintenance computer. [0028] Advantageously, when pieces of equipment comprise parts themselves furnished, at their lower level of assemblage, with electronic circuits for monitoring proper operation generating fault messages relating to said equipment parts destined for the central maintenance computer, the electronic circuits for monitoring proper operation of these pieces of equipment are also furnished with means of detection, capture and transfer into their nonvolatile memories integral with the equipment, of fault messages issued at the lower levels of assemblage by the circuit or circuits for monitoring proper operation of the equipment parts of which they are composed when these messages travel over the data transmission link or links linking the circuits for monitoring proper operation to the central maintenance computer. [0029] Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will emerge from the description hereinbelow of an embodiment given by way of example. This description will be given in conjunction with the drawing in which: [0030] a FIG. 1 represents, diagrammatically, an exemplary architecture of a centralized maintenance system for equipment of an aircraft, and [0031] a FIG. 2 details an exemplary electronic circuit for monitoring proper operation according to the invention, intended to be mounted on a removable item of equipment or piece of equipment whose proper operation is monitored by means of a centralized maintenance system such as that of FIG. 1. [0032] The main pieces of equipment of a modern aircraft contributing the accomplishment of the flight, such as the engines, the motors actuating the rudder and elevators as well as the various flaps, the landing gear, etc., the interfaces for controlling these various engines and motors, the measurement apparatus for the aerodynamic parameters, for the heading, for the altitude, for position, for velocity, the automatic pilot, the flight management computer, the fuel management computer, the radio communication apparatus, etc. are furnished with individual devices for monitoring proper operation carrying out a BITE function, that is to say the checking of the main operating parameters of this apparatus as well as the conducting of automatic or semiautomatic tests when necessary and the issuing of fault messages when the measured parameters depart from the permitted value ranges or when the results of a test are not as expected. Continue reading... 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